Carmelo Anthony leaves the court after a Knicks win over the 76ers last year.
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

The Carmelo Anthony Era in New York, which became an excruciating battle that (thankfully) cost Phil Jackson his job as Knicks president of basketball operations, is officially over after the team announced that they'd traded the superstar forward to the Oklahoma City for a pair of players and a draft pick.

This past summer, Anthony told the Knicks he'd agree to waive his no-trade clause to clear a move to the Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers, but the Knicks weren't able to reach a deal with either of those teams. He'd just this week agreed to expand his list of teams to include the Thunder, who were able to work out a deal for him.

Short of a 54-win season in 2012-13 that included the team actually winning a playoff series, the Knicks weren't able to find a ton of success with Anthony as the team's focal point. Still, Phil Jackson brought him back with a five-year, $129 million contract in 2014 after Anthony opted out of his contract, a deal that included the no-trade clause that Jackson would come to regret almost immediately. While the team itself got worse and worse, Anthony's effort never wavered, and plenty of Knicks fans blamed ownership and Jackson more than Anthony for the Knicks' continuing decline.

In proper New York tradition, my verdict on the Melo trade consists mostly of the word "fuck" and aggressive hand gestures

Anthony should face less pressure to be a primary scorer or leader in Oklahoma City, which employs the services of triple-double machine and reigning league MVP Russel Westbrook. For the Knicks, the trade means they can fully embrace their youth movement, led by Kristaps Porzingis, Willy Hernangomez and the recently reacquired Tim Hardaway, Jr.